Anatomy Of An Empath: Part 3

My hope is that you have gained insight regarding many of the physical and mental characteristics of being empathic and feel more empowered moving forward. Now we will evaluate common emotional characteristics of an empath/sensitive person.

First off, I just want to say to all the sensitive people out there that I totally understand and empathize with how challenging it can be to live with high sense perception. For instance, there you are, just minding your own business at the grocery store and suddenly out of nowhere you become overwhelmed by the feelings of the angry mom struggling to corral her kids in the cereal aisle…

Like a flash you feel all of her frustration, and before you even have time to drop the box of Cheerios and run, her emotions burn through your system as if they are your own. You gasp, turn on your heel, and run out into the parking lot where you’re left dealing with the exchange for the next several hours (or days).

Sound familiar? (Don’t even get me started on the energy in shopping malls, airports, and hospitals! Those places used to take me out big time.) It can be overwhelming—and a royal pain in the butt trying to go into public without having to decontaminate yourself or complete endless grounding rituals that seem to only have a moderate effect.

SO. NOT. FUN. Been there. Done that.

So are we doomed? If we feel things deeply are we destined to a life of misery? Is there any way that we can break free of the vicious cycle of energetic contraband? I’m delighted to say that NO we are not doomed to a life of agony.

There are many simple techniques you can learn to overcome the static cling-on effect and quit being a sponge to everyone else’s baggage. *Insert Rocky theme song here!*

Emotional Characteristics of Empaths

Let’s get to some of the common emotional characteristics that I’ve noticed in empaths and sensitive people:

If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a million times: we are the healers, the caregivers, the nurturers. We have compassion and empathy, and are able to put ourselves in other people’s shoes. We want people to feel good, to thrive, to end suffering, and of course…we want world peace.

Because while their ability to empathize deeply can be an asset, I’ve also seen it used as the opposite.

Huh? Put simply, I’ve noticed a tendency for some empaths to use their deep emotion as a way to sidestep accountability, gain identity, engage in martyrdom, and play victim/disband personal power.

Before I proceed, I give a full disclaimer that I myself spent years completely self-absorbed and awash in deep emotion. I didn’t feel like I was trying to be that way. In fact, I claimed that I wanted it to be different. But when I finally dug down and got really, really, real with myself, I saw that I kept myself in emotional angst because it gave me a sense of purpose. I was getting a payoff from the drama. I fed on people’s attention and support. I kept myself engaged in the agony of “this is so difficult” because it fed me. At some level, I enjoyed it.

The processing gave me something to do, and after even more digging, I discovered that it was a way for me to distract myself from having to step up and really become accountable for my life.

(Deep breath, I know that can sting a little…)

The good news is that after I had those realizations, I changed. I stopped identifying with “saving the world” or making everything be about me. Simultaneously, I dealt with my addiction to processing and when I did that, I found a separation between other people’s emotions and my own.

The longer I’ve practiced, the more adept I’ve become at feeling what’s mine and what isn’t. Now when the frustration of the angry soccer mom hits me in the grocery store I think, “Oh, look at that,” deflect it, and move on.

Do all empaths engage in self-defeating behaviors?

Nope! Not by a long shot. I’ve met many self-connected individuals who are quite balanced between their shadow/subconscious work and conscious lives. They’ve done the inquiry to uncover their inner workings and make powerful choices from a place of balance (much of the time).

Please hear me when I say that it is possible to feel deeply and not be leveled by it…but it comes with personal accountability and practice.

Next time you are subsumed in a deep emotional process you might ask yourself:

Is this my emotion or someone else’s?

Have I felt this emotion before? How many times?

Have I processed this before? How many times?

If you decide that the energy is not yours, and/or that you’ve processed it before, you can make the choice to engage it or not. If you choose to engage, maybe ask yourself why you want to process.

What are you getting out of it?

Do you feel of service?

Is it distracting you?

Are you paying attention to other’s energy instead of your own?

This is where the rubber meets the road, guys. It’s not easy to face these parts of ourselves but when we do, we can find balance, ease, and liberation.

Life as an empath comes with all sides—deep, glistening beauty of blissful love, and the agony of hate, greed, lust, and war.

It all just is. And it likely won’t change. What can change, however, is how you view it. Showing up powerfully in your life, power, and love are possible!

You can thrive beyond the chaos of emotional turmoil. You are the conscious creator—go forth, play, and live your inner-awesome.

May your life be rich with meaningful connections, emotional balance, and clarity!

Shine on, you crazy diamond! And thank you for being the deep feeler that you are.

Sarah K. Grace is a powerful and dynamic individual who spent over a decade merging her career as a paramedic in some of California’s busiest 911 systems with her innate gifts as a clairvoyant medium, medical intuitive, and energy healer. Combining Western and Energy Medicine, Sarah has spent years studying both physical and energy anatomy while applying her skills in critical settings to thousands of patients as they dealt with life and death emergencies.

Sarah now has a vibrant private practice working with clients worldwide as they embrace their own power, make sense of their energetic abilities, and heal past traumas. She is an author, mentor, intuitive energy healer, clairvoyant medium, medical intuitive, and licensed paramedic. She is a vibrant person with quick wit and dry humor whose intention is to lead by example, displaying that one can fully engage their psychic abilities while still thriving in joyful, powerful, and abundant lives.

Sarah K. Grace lives, works, and plays in Northern California while accommodating clients from all across the country in their own personal empowerment and energetic awareness. Her intuitive, grounded approach is clear in every session, and is easily translated both in person and over the phone. Understanding that the whole Human Experience is just a whimsical moment of infinite Creation, Sarah chooses to embrace life fully while empowering her clients to do the same.

Sarah K. Grace is a Medical Intuitive offering consultations both in person and over the phone for clients nationwide. Morning, afternoon, and evening appointments are available to help accommodate individual needs, schedules, and time zones. Consultations done by phone are scheduled in Pacific Standard Time.

What to Expect

Session Duration: 75 minutes

Your session with Medical Intuitive, Sarah K. Grace will consist of a ‘grid scan’, allowing her to identify where the imbalance(s) are in your system. She will then dialogue with you regarding your questions and concerns as she systematically clears and balances your energy bodies and relays messages from loved ones or guides that may come through. Sarah is passionate about creating a profound and nourishing experience for you. Her method is effective both in person and via phone because once her connection to your gird has been established, Sarah can ‘see’ and clear your energy as if you were standing in front of her. You will then receive a comprehensive follow up plan to help implement positive and lasting changes into your life.

Whimsical Approach

With a wry sense of humor and approachable personality, you’ll find a session with Sarah to be refreshingly easy, like connecting with an old friend.

Belief System

Sarah K. Grace does not subscribe to any one particular healing modality or belief system. All recommendations are based on your unique needs.

Here’s An Excerpt From Sarah's Book: Journey Into Grace​

My shift was almost over and I was glad. It was 10:30 on a balmy Saturday night, and my long time partner Kevin and I had spent ten hours running 911 calls on people who didn’t require anything close to emergency medical attention. There was the lady seeking narcotics for back pain she had for three weeks, the homeless kid who just wanted a ride to the other side of the city, and the little old lady who was confused and needed help changing her husband’s diaper. We were both starving since we hadn’t had a moment to stop and eat throughout the entire day. When a break in radio traffic finally came, we decided to seize the moment of blessed silence by grabbing some Mexican food, popping a comedy into Kevin’s portable DVD player, and “posting” – a custom in the private ambulance business that entails sitting in a parking lot behind a retail business awaiting further assignment from dispatch.

Neither one of us wanted to move another inch that night, so I kicked off my combat boots, curled up in a ball on the passenger seat, and began inhaling my chicken burrito at record speed. With my knees against my chest, I used my navy blue reflective jacket as a make shift blanket and rolled up a towel for a pillow – fully ready to satiate my appetite and be mindlessly entertained by Hollywood’s latest for the duration of our shift. But fate had other plans for us. Only minutes after finally getting comfortable, our radio scanner crackled to life and dispatch assigned us to a motor vehicle accident just down the road. Kevin and I groaned in unison, snapped the DVD player shut, and threw the rest of our food into the trash before flipping on the lights and sirens and responding to a 911 call that would once again have me up close and personal with the beautiful energy and bloody splendor of death.

Arriving on scene, I noticed a brand new H2 stalled in the middle of the four-lane intersection. It was flashy white with chrome detailing, and my well-trained eyes rapidly scanned it for shattered glass, deployed airbags, or bodies inside. I didn’t see anything except a broken headlight and minor damage to the body and grill. “Not too bad,” I thought to myself, “But what did it hit?” Just then the little hairs on the back of my neck stood up as my eyes trailed behind the Hummer. I saw a massive debris field of shattered glass and car parts littering the opposite side of the road.

“Oh shit, this isn’t good,” Kevin said as the magnitude of the wreck began to dawn on us. “Are you ready? This one is legit,” he said while skillfully positioning the ambulance next to a fire truck already parked on scene. Kevin was a mountain of a man at 6’5 and 250 pounds and his demeanor and large presence always anchored me on traumatic calls. He was an EMS veteran who had put in his time, and there wasn’t much that could faze him anymore. His grounded nature made me feel safe and I always knew he had my back no matter how crazy the situation became.

Down a small embankment, about a hundred yards from where the H2 sat, was a totaled Honda Civic. Barely resembling a car anymore, the driver side was crushed and crumpled into a small, smoking hunk of black metal. My immediate thought was, “There is absolutely no way anyone is alive in there,” but firefighters and police scrambled around the scene like chickens with their heads cut off yelling at each other for proper gear and apparatus. The fact that they weren’t their typically calm and collected selves gave me a heads-up that shit was about to get REAL – and fast.

“Let’s go Kevin. We got this.” I said eagerly while opening the ambulance door. “Right behind you baby girl,” his deep voice replied without missing a beat.

As I jumped out of the ambulance, my perspective of time and space abruptly shifted. Every sensory detail was enlivened with crystalline clarity as though I’d stepped into a scene from The Matrix. A loud thud reverberated across the pavement as my tiny feet hit the ground, and I turned to absorb the sensory information spewing from the scene in front of me. Thick scents of burning plastic, gasoline, and coagulated blood permeated the warm summer air while angry orange sparks flew in slow motion off a firefighter’s saw as he worked feverishly to open the crushed door of the civic. More firefighters hollered for equipment, flashlights frantically shone down into the car, and shell-shocked bystanders cringed from the sidelines. Despite it all, I heard nothing but my breath as I walked toward the shattered vehicle. With my heart pounding in my chest and adrenaline dumping into my system, I braced myself for the crumpled mess of a body that was about to become my patient.

Taylor was a bright, beautiful eighteen-year-old college student with her whole life ahead of her on the night of that collision. According to the police on scene, she had been turning left through the intersection when a heavily intoxicated twenty-year-old driving his dad’s brand new Hummer ran a red light, T-boning her car at over 50 m.p.h. Amazingly, she hadn’t been killed instantly and was still clinging to life when we arrived. The collision had snapped both her femurs and crushed her legs. She had been wearing her seatbelt, but the impact was so severe that her torso had been thrown between the seats, landing her head on the back passenger side seat while her bottom half remained pinned under the steering column on the driver’s side.

As I approached Taylor, my clairvoyant vision and empathic abilities were in overdrive, and I was bombarded with every sensory detail of the scene simultaneously. My body felt like it was stuffed with cotton – light, open, and hugely aware as though there were no longer any boundaries between where my skin ended and the energy of the Universe began. From the sticky bead of sweat dripping down the fire captain’s cheek to the intensity of the cop giving the driver of the Hummer a sobriety test across the road to Taylor’s wide-open, emerald eyes in front of me, everything became apparent at the same time. While my perception was as slow as dripping molasses, my hands and body worked with dialed precision. It was as though I intuitively knew exactly what actions to take and what was coming next. The calming energy of my expanded state grounded me and relaxed my body as I worked on my patient.

Taylor was staring straight ahead at the roof of the car as her delicate mouth gasped shallow, broken guppy breaths. Bright red blood streamed from her forehead and her skin was pasty white from shock. Even in her current state, her youth and beauty struck me as I reached out to her with a bag valve mask to assist her breathing. Firefighters had secured the car but were still working on extrication so I had to work on her body through the tiny opening of a shattered back window. Holding her crushed head in my hands, I applied a cervical collar to her neck to immobilize her spine and suctioned the blood from her mouth.

Kevin was right behind me handing me every tool I needed as I worked on inserting a breathing tube into Taylor’s mouth. Her body had a weak pulse, but she wasn’t breathing effectively so we needed to control her respirations. Access was difficult, but we managed the best we could until I suddenly began to feel the presence of Taylor’s soul moving away from her body. As plainly as the crushed car and broken body in front of me, I saw her sweet young spirit hovering two feet above and to the right of us. A thin spider-web-like chord ran from her spirit to her physical form, connecting to it just below her breastbone. Wide-eyed and confused, her soul clearly couldn’t register what was happening to her body. Her spirit shook its head in disbelief as she watched me repeatedly squeeze the bag valve to pump air into her limp form.

Using the Jaws of Life, firefighters finally pulled the driver’s side door off and began freeing Taylor from the wreckage. Just then I watched as a bright light appeared behind her soul. It started like a few fireflies dancing together at dusk and then spread into a shimmering light of cobalt blue and white as a massive Celestial angel appeared behind her spirit. At least ten feet tall, the angel emanated a calm, soothing love and its powerful presence expanded outwardly, blanketing the chaotic scene in a tranquil silence. Through my clairvoyant vision, I watched in reverent awe as Taylor’s spirit turned away from the chaotic scene and toward the angel, her face slowly softening into acceptance as the angel wrapped its arms around her. The two sprits began merging into one brilliant light just as the firefighters freed Taylor’s legs from the wreckage. The pressure of the steering column had been keeping her system intact. Once removed, her blood pressure plummeted and her heart suddenly stopped beating. My hands never stopped working on her physical body even though I knew what was coming. In one brilliant flash the angel and beautiful young girl became a blinding white light and disappeared together from my view. As suddenly as they were there, they were gone taking the expanded energy of the scene with them…

In these sessions, Sarah combines her extensive Paramedic background with her keen intuition and clairvoyance to intuitively scan the client’s body for areas of imbalance. Through gentle touch and effective communication, the client’s physical and auric bodies are then energetically realigned toward optimum health. Often times, Sarah is able to explain the connection of the energy to an emotion or event causing the illness – which she then relays to the client so that they may work together to transmute that energy and facilitate healing at the core level.

Sarah is unique in the world of energy healing due to her grounded, practical, and humorous nature. Not one for ‘woo woo’ phenomena, her whimsical nature and extensive communication abilities allow for the client to receive messages from Spirit in a way that not only makes sense, but that can also be practically applied in every day life.

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